Column > Andrew Fernando

In mid-April last year, when the captaincy fell to Tillakaratne Dilshan, he trimmed his beard in the conventional fashion. What followed was something-of a reverse Samson effect. After having rocked the pedestrian-crossing look for years, Dilshan did away with the facial flamboyance, opting to retain those maturity-bestowing strips of chin hair. He rarely looked himself with the bat until he began to shave them again.

With Mahela Jayawardene at the top of the innings, the 1996 blueprint that bred the Sri Lankan brand of cricket seems reborn. With a keen finger on the pulse of an innings, a fine temperament and a desire to build for the future, Jayawardene has all the makings of a great captain. Perhaps he already is one.

In a way, it makes sense that he only retired after exhausting every avenue to keep himself in the team. For a man whose cricket mocked traditional wisdom and achieved the seemingly impossible against daunting odds, his decisions - however regrettable - were strangely understandable.

At first, it appeared as though he was set to leave in early May, until it was revealed that, in fact, it wasn’t really upto him. It was the boards’ decision, apparently. The SLC had signed an agreement with the BCCI regarding the involvement of their players in the IPL – the details of which still remain unclear.

This episode has raised questions. Why is there an agreement between the SLC and the BCCI regarding players’ availability in the IPL in the first place? The benefits to the BCCI from Sri Lankan players remaining in the IPL are clear, but not so for the SLC. What did the Sri Lankan Board have to gain from it?

But perhaps most importantly, why, in a lucrative league, that is supposed to be at the forefront of player empowerment, was the player’s wish for an early exit not immediately ratified?

Andrew Fernando

Andrew Fernando is a Sri Lankan-born sports journalist residing in Auckland, New Zealand. After contributing satirical cricket articles for ESPNCricinfo's Page 2, Andrew moved on to more serious assignments and has since covered several international cricket tours as an accredited correspondent for ESPNCricinfo. He also writes and edits the satirical news website, The Pigeon.